Be a Ranger! Babylon 5: Outrageous Fortune (Re-recruiting)

[Walking Dad]

A pak'ma'ra, eh? Why does the idea of a pak'ma'ra scientist make me think of Doctor Zoidberg?

Actually, it would work quite well for the cover story - that of Quantium-40 buyers on a lawless fringe world. The pak'ma'ra are great traders of Q-40 and are commonly found in the worst places of the universe (partly because they don't care about such things and partly because they tend not to get invited to the nice parts).

The first pak'ma'ra allowed into the Rangers (in 2262) was trained in infiltration techniques since the effective invisibility of the pak'ma'ra made it ideally suited to covert courier missions. Who would suspect it, and who would want to go near it?

[sblock="pak'ma'ra stats"]
In game terms, pak'ma'ra get the following:

-2 Dex, +4 Con, -2 Cha.
Medium size.
Base speed 20 ft.
+2 Stealth and Subterfuge, may always treat these as class skills.
+2 Intrigue used to gather information.
+2 Investigate used to search an area.
Great Fortitude feat for free.
Immune to many common diseases, poisons and some toxic atmospheres.
Fluency (English) - understand only, need a translator unit to converse in non-pak'ma'ra languages.
Fluency (pak'ma'ra)

You can also elect to take the Stench feat at 1st level, which causes all within 10 ft. to make a Concentration check or be sickened, plus gives a Charisma bonus to other pak'ma'ra. However, this would also affect allies as it is a permanent effect...
[/sblock]

[sblock="Scientist stats"]
Scientist game rules:

Initial hit points: 5+ Con modifier
Initial skill points (8+Int modifier) x4
Class skills: Computer Use (Int), Concentration (Con), Investigate (Int), Knowledge (any) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Medical (Int), Profession (white collar) (Int), Technical (any) (Int).

Proficient with pistol weapons
Starting money 2400 credits

Mental Agility: may make Operations, Knowledge and Technical checks untrained.
Primary Area of Study: select Medical, Linguistics, any one Knowledge or any one Technical skill as primary area of study. Add class levels to this skill.

1d4 Influence in area related to primary study
+0 BAB
Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +2
+0 base defence
[/sblock]

Sounds good. I will work on some background and stats. Did the characters worked together before?

 

[Dr Simon]

My thoughts on how the characters met:

The ISA/Rangers has a general call for experts in various fields, from all races in the ISA, to assist in the search for a cure to the Drakh Plague. For whatever reason, the characters' superiors in their field have put them forwards as candidates for this mission.

There has been a brief but intense training session of perhaps a week or two in the Minbari capital city Tuzanor, then they are given their first mission (this one). So they are familiar with each other at least from the training. If you like, they may be familiar with each other from before as well, if you can work out a backstory between you. As this is B5, it isn't essential that you are all best friends who would out each other before anything else.

 

[Blackrat]

Any news on those other characters?

Since this is quite a slow recruitment I'm happy to drag this on for a while. Once we get playing, it'll probably be at about the same speed as Rive Kingdoms.

I probably won't be able to finish the character until next weekend. I have an important exam on thursday and preparing for it is eating most of my time. But after that, I'll finish the character as soon as possible .

 

[Walking Dad]

Got a bit of a flavor block

Are there special character creation rules I should be aware of?
Or should I just take your provided infos and build it like a D&D character?

Slightly off-topic: Has anyone tried to convert Babylon 5 to Star Wars Saga rules?

 

[Shayuri]

Working on it...

Anything I should keep in mind, feat or skillwise, to reflect Ranger training?

 

[Dr Simon]

Blackrat: no worries.

WD: It's pretty much as D&D character creation - I think the points total is in the first post. Some feats are different, and there are some setting-specific feats, but standard ones are pretty much the same. Some skills have been condensed - I'll post a full list shortly.

Shayuri: not particularly. There is a Ranger core class for full Ranger training, otherwise anything to do with stealth, combat and Minbari culture, I think. Iron Will is a good Ranger-y feat.

 

[Dr Simon]

B5 RPG skills:

Where sub-skills are listed with a capital letter, these are the SRD skills that have been combined into a new skill (e.g. Athletics covers all checks to Climb, Jump or Swim). Where sub-skills are not capitalised, these are specialisations that must be chosen (e.g. Operations (systems) or Operations (pilot)).

Acrobatics (Dex): Balance, Tumble, Zero-G
Appraise (Int)
Athletics (Str): Climb, Jump, Swim
Bluff (Cha)
Computer Use (Int)
Concentration (Con)
Diplomacy (Cha)
Drive (Dex)
Intimidate (Cha)
Intrigue (Cha): Gather Information, Disguise
Investigate (Int): Search, Forensics
Knowledge (Int) : astrophyics, biology, chemistry, engineering, history, law, philosophy, physics, specific culture, specific local, tactics, telepathy
Linguistics (Int)
Medical (Int)
Notice (Wis): Spot, Listen
Operations (Int) : driving, gunnery, piloting, sensors, systems
Pilot (Dex)
Profession (Int): blue collar, white collar, performing
Sense Motive (Wis)
Stealth (Dex): Hide, Move Silently
Subterfuge (Dex): Disable Device, Pick Lock, Sleight of Hand
Technical (Int): electronics, engineering, mechanical
Telepathy (Cha)


Note that the Operations skill array covers use of large scale equipment from warships to fleets. Drive allows you to drive a small ground vehicle, Operations (driving) allows you to command an industrial crawler or a regiment of tanks.
The Technical skill array is used to take things apart and/or put them together again.
Linguistics is a single skill that allows communication (halting) in any language, but the Fluency feat gives full communicative ability in a given language. Unlike the SRD Speak Language, you put varied points into Linguistics, same as any other skill.
Knowledge (specific culture) is always a class skill and always considered trained for your own culture.

 

[Shayuri]

Do humans still get the usual 2 feats and bonus skill point at 1st level?

 

[Dr Simon]

Do humans still get the usual 2 feats and bonus skill point at 1st level?

Yes.

 

[Blackrat]

Slightly off-topic: Has anyone tried to convert Babylon 5 to Star Wars Saga rules?

I thought about it when Saga first came but time was against me. I might consider it again though